Coring of cauliflower heads has been done by machines before. However, conventional machines for this purpose generally use two overlapping horizontal circular blades which severe the butt end or cull portion of the head as the head moves along a predetermined path. Then, with its culls removed, the head is moved into engagement with a rotary knife so that the head is broken into curds which are then collected, process and packaged. The circular blades mentioned above are not adjustable in height and cannot compensate for heads of different sizes. For large heads, the blades must be raised manually so that too much of a relatively large head will not be cut off. Similarly, for smaller heads, the blades have to be manually lowered to get enough of the culls. This requires that the heads be sorted as to size before they are moved through the machine past the blades. This adds to labor costs and to the time required to core a given number of cauliflower heads.
Because of these shortcomings, a need has arisen for an improved apparatus and method for coring cauliflower heads of different sizes without having to change the operating positions of cutting blades yet a relatively large number of cauliflower heads can be cored in a minimum of time.